From: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com (edheads-digest) To: edheads-digest@smoe.org Subject: edheads-digest V4 #239 Reply-To: edheads@efohio.com Sender: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Errors-To: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Precedence: bulk edheads-digest Thursday, October 11 2001 Volume 04 : Number 239 Today's Subjects: ----------------- well...what would -your- first reaction have been? [Shellyus@aol.com] EFO in California: Big Giant Review (long!) [Nicole Carlson Subject: EFO in California: Big Giant Review (long!) Hi everyone It's only a few days late. I got back from EFO Roadtrip '01 and went pretty much directly into an academic conference. As you academia nuts know, conferences are pretty boring at best, and they're really REALLY hard to sit through after you've had such a blast the previous weekend. McCabe's, 10/5 Honestly, I'm poorly qualified to review these shows. I was finishing up a 24-hour day (I had gotten up at 4 AM Eastern time), and I was sooo tired... But what I can pick out of the blur in my memory was generally positive. Interesting bits: You've all heard of the Michelle Incident. Tommy the Canexican included an extempore off-color lyric change from Mr. Clem, about which the less said the better. :) Also, Mike didn't touch his acoustic guitar all night, which meant that I attended my first show where they didn't play 3 Fine Daughters. (I was intrigued by this, but it turned out to have a perfectly pedestrian explanation--something like the sound board didn't have enough inputs to accomodate all the instruments.) At the second show, Jess met a college friend of hers, who came on Jess's recommendation and left a convert... another one in the fold, I guess. :) Afterwards I met a few Edheads--hi guys! Seth Hornstein was there. (He'd seen me maybe two seconds before: "You're Nicole, aren't you?") I think I met Ron Rosen, but I'm embarrassed to admit I can't really remember. A familiar-looking curly-headed guy turned out not to be an Edhead I'd met at Falcon Ridge, but rather Dan Navarro from Lowen & Navarro. (Tired, remember?) Kuumbwa Jazz Center 10/6 An awesome show, even by EFO standards--certainly made my Top Something list. And not just because they graciously played my request (Bowling In The Hills), either--they got four separate standing ovations, which has got to be some kind of a record. Jess and I screwed up--we thought that DOORS were at 7:30, when that was in fact showtime. So we pulled in in what we thought was plenty of time to get in line, meet up with the usual Santa Cruz crowd, etc.; but instead we walked up to find doors open and the place packed. Choice of seats was of course limited; we ended up way up against a wall, but even that turned out to afford a clear view of the stage. During intermission, I finally met up with the Usual Suspects--Bruce, the brothers Angwin and their wives, and all those familiar-looking people whose names I never remember. (Hi, guys!) Sarah, I'm really sorry; I had wanted to meet up with you, but we were the Honorary Michelles (see McCabe's review) of the evening. Setlist included: The usual off Quick (Quick, Mesolithic, Best of Me, Hey Little Man, #6 Driver, 1K Sarahs, Candido & America) Monotony (I'm not including this with "the usual" because it seems to me that it alternates with Tommy the Canexican) Eddie's Concubine ("He promises he'll leave his wife" was echoed with "She's a banana slug!" People who have been to Santa Cruz shows know that there's generally a reference or three to UCSC's beloved slimy mascot. My favorite was Mike's declaration that the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs' archenemy should be the UC Davis Salt. Go Davis!) Bowling in the Hills (yeah, baby! Sweeeet!) Don't Think Twice, It's All Right She's Hot To Go (first time hearing this (by them, anyway)) A hilarious campfire-type singalong with improvised Mike-lyrics One (I think it was this show. Might have been played Sunday.) Omar's Got A Problem (I'm reasonably sure it was this show, but it might have been Friday.) Stupid American 20K Hearts Old Dominion Freight & Salvation 10/7 Another great one, though the vibe was distinctly mellower than the Kuumbwa show. The Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse only seats about 200; since EFO have consistently sold it out over the past few tours, they've been moved to an auxilliary venue that the Freight uses for big-draw bands. In some sense it's a trifle sad, end of an era and all--the Freight is a wonderful venue; cozy, intimate, with a history of great EFO shows, and here they've basically outgrown it. And what, in Berkeley, fills the void between the Freight and the Oakland Coliseum? Precious little. There's plenty of venues in San Francisco--there's venues of every size you want in SF, from dinky ones like Hotel Utah [1] to huge ones like the Civic Auditorium or the Cow Palace, if they even hold concerts there. I don't know. My point is, there's a decent number of medium-sized venues in SF, like Slim's, the Great American Music Hall (which they're theoretically playing next tour), the Fillmore (hey, it's not THAT big, only a little bigger than the GAMH); nothing like that in the East Bay. So they'll have to move across the Bay, where it's all-in-all tougher to go to shows, and I'll miss seeing them in funky little towns like Berkeley, Davis (man, it was great for me when they played Davis... I had a five-minute trip to the venue), Monterey (ok, maybe not Monterey), etc. That's all. Now back to your regularly scheduled review. The Freight At St. John's Presbyterian Church (dubbed the "Freight & Salvation") was a nice if somewhat chilly place. Unfortunately the logistics could use a little work--the entrance was NOT marked, which resulted in a steady stream of people coming to the wrong doors and being sent back around the block to the right doors, a trip that must have been irksome at best. (And if this happened to you, I'm sorry.) But the room was nice and big, with echo-y acoustics, and once everyone was in, things worked well. Setlist included, in no order but not exhaustively: The usual off Quick. (Robbie declared us the most in-tune audience ever on Candido & America, but I bet he says that to all the audiences :-)) Abraham (!) Tommy the Canexican Loitering in the Lobby (has Julie's counterpoint at the end has changed or is my mind playing tricks on me? (smart money's on the latter, I know)) Santa Margherita (!) Eddie's Concubine Fruited Plain 3 Fine Daughters Simile Song (I think. Was also played Friday.) Train Song (whoa... hadn't heard it in a while) This My Town (I think...) Jerusalem Woman of Faith Old Dominion All shows had butt-kicking drum solos, Oh My Brother (I felt like I'd never heard it before... truly great), closed with America the Beautiful, and had Down to the River to Pray somewhere in the encore. Also, they played Irish Dream at some point during the weekend, but I have no idea when. Now I shall go away and will myself to forget that next California tour is a year away. - --nicole twn [1] Horribly laid out and full of drunkards. I firmly believe that anyone who wishes to play a tiny bar in San Francisco should at least have the common decency to play the Last Day Saloon instead. *** "Life ocassionally gets more complicated than 'Mary Had A Little Lamb'." - --former artificial intelligence professor Visit Nicolopolis! http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~carlsonn nmcarlson@ucdavis.edu ana.ng@tmbg.org carlsonn@seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 23:58:32 -0700 From: Glenn Basden Subject: RE: EFO in California: Big Giant Review (long!) Hey all. Just found this list a few days ago, right after the Berkeley concert. Nice to meet you all. > -----Original Message----- > From: Nicole Carlson [mailto:nmcarlson@ucdavis.edu] *Really cool description of all the CA concerts I *couldn't* attend snipped for space...* > The Freight At St. John's Presbyterian Church (dubbed > the "Freight & > Salvation") was a nice if somewhat chilly place. > Setlist included, > in no order but not exhaustively: The usual off Quick. > (Robbie declared us the most in-tune audience ever on Candido > & America, but I bet he says that to all the audiences :-)) > Abraham (!) Tommy the Canexican Loitering in the Lobby (has > Julie's counterpoint at the end has changed or is my mind > playing tricks on me? (smart money's on the latter, I know)) > Santa Margherita (!) Eddie's Concubine Fruited Plain 3 Fine > Daughters Simile Song (I think. Was also played Friday.) > Train Song (whoa... hadn't heard it in a while) This My Town > (I think...) Jerusalem Woman of Faith Old Dominion I don't think they did Eddie's Concubine at this show, since I left feeling disappointed that I didn't hear it. Santa Margherita was awesome. The story behind Woman of Faith was fabulous as well - a guy requested it by email, but they couldn't remember who. It was supposed to be a long distance dedication. After the break, they realized that the story was completely wrong, and a woman requested it for a guy, but at that point after all the mocking he wasn't admitting he was there. I still want to hear Mike's new dedication to himself - Awesome Guy. Abraham was truly wonderful as well. And the audience participation on Candido certainly sounded above average to me - maybe they were vaguely impressed. > All shows had butt-kicking drum solos, Oh My Brother (I felt > like I'd never heard it before... truly great), closed with > America the Beautiful, and had Down to the River to Pray > somewhere in the encore. Oh my Brother was the standout of the night for me, at least. The only depressing part of the evening for me was when my minidisc recorder bit the big one and I lost the entire concert recording on the way home... Well, that and the drive back to Sacramento was entirely too long. > Now I shall go away and will myself to forget that next > California tour is a year away. There are very few things that make me sad to be in CA - the fact that EFO and Dar are both East coast bands are one of them. If I ask nicely, will someone explain The Michelle Incident to a newcomer? Thanks all, Glenn ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:41:10 -0400 From: Ellen Buckley Subject: Re: well...what would -your- first reaction have been? Shellyus@aol.com wrote: > {who is apparently, according to this particular test, Rachel *boggle*} everyone i know who's taken this test is a rachel, except one person named rachel. peace, ellen - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. - -from The Washington Post's Style Invitational ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 13:05:08 +0000 From: "Carey Farrell" Subject: Re: well...what would -your- first reaction have been? Shell wrote: >Shelly >{who is apparently, according to this particular test, Rachel *boggle*} Dwd...it said I was Rachel, too. What are we doing wrong here? :) Carey _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 06:12:10 -0700 From: "Ron Rosen" Subject: Re: EFO in California: Big Giant Review (long!) > If I ask nicely, will someone explain The Michelle Incident to a > newcomer? Michelle Incident has been forwarded to Glenn. ------------------------------ End of edheads-digest V4 #239 *****************************